Sub-acute care services home <

Sub-acute Ambulatory Care Services Minimum Dataset Release and Information Session

On Wednesday April 6 2006, the Department of Human Services released the Sub-acute Ambulatory Care Services Minimum Data Set during an information session for SACS Managers, coordinators, clinicians, data entry staff and health information managers.

On behalf of the Department of Human Services, Noreen Dowd, Director - Programs Branch, Metropolitan Health and Aged Care services, welcomed more than one and twenty hundred representatives from Victoria’s Health Services and presented the SACS Framework – The Policy Framework.

The session

• provided an overview of the SACS Framework
• released and explained the SACS Minimum Data Set (MDS)
• announced funding to support the implementation of the SACS MDS

The SACS Framework encompasses the:

• development of a model of care
• consolidation of the SACS funding streams; and
• development of standardised accountability measures and reporting processes.

Key features of the SACS MDS include:

• responsiveness to specific models of care used within SACS
• alignment of data definitions and concepts with other Departmental collections and the National Health Data Dictionary
• streamlined collection and transmission of data by Health Services to the Department, including use of the HL7 standard.

The SACS MDS has been developed in consultation with the field to support the SACS Framework. Data will enable Health Services to meet the accountability requirements of the new funding structure and inform further policy development.

The Department has redeveloped the Community Rehabilitation Centre Minimum Dataset and the Specialist Clinics Minimum Dataset into a single Sub-acute Ambulatory Care Services Minimum Dataset (SACS MDS).

The new SACS MDS now enables the Department to meet its State and Commonwealth accountability obligations, and provide important data to inform service planning. SACS providers are required to collect the SACS MDS data from 1 July 2005. Data must be submitted to the Department by 31 December 2005.

The SACS MDS has been prepared in collaboration with a working party comprised of managers and clinicians from the field. A key aim has been aligning the data items and definitions with those used in other Departmental collections such as the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED), and with the standard definitions used in the National Health Data Dictionary.

SACS Framework - The Policy Context ( PDF file 466KB)

SACS Framework – An Overview ( PDF file 225KB)

SACS Minimum Data Set - The Wider Context ( PDF file 161KB)

SACS Minimum Data Set – An Overview (PDF file 397KB)

Sub-acute Ambulatory Care Services Minimum Data Set Manual

^ Top